Hologramsin Science 8 at OHS

Inspired by a demonstration by ADEs in Italy during Challenge to Change 2 in November 2015, Kevin and Katie Morrow decided to replicate the experience of creating holograms with iPad in 8th grade Science.

Alberto Pian leads educators across Italy in experiential learning with iPad, including constructing holograms with Keynote.

To begin, we demonstrated our own hologram example to create mystique for the students.

Create your own example first and use as a model to entice your students.

We positioned an iPad on a tall stand with a black T-shirt draped over the hologram projector. As students entered the darkened room, they could wonder about how it worked.

Next each student created their "hologram projector" by cutting out a pyramid shape that was photocopied on to an overhead transparency.

Template for the plastic pyramid

Once cut out, students folded the plastic on each of the solid edges.

Where the pyramid edges were to come together, students used scotch tape to fasten and hold up their 3-dimensional pyramid.

Each student constructed their own personal "hologram projector" to test with an iPad.

To test out their "hologram projector" students searched for ready-made hologram videos on YouTube on the iPad.

They placed a dark solid square cover on the top of their inverted pyramid. These could be cut ahead of time out of tag board or construction paper and shared.

Students practiced engineering skills by redesigning, testing, and adapting their pyramids to make them more sturdy and to help them project a clearer image.

A successful "found" hologram

Favorite characters were discovered

And students were eager to capture their successes

Allowing students to explore and discover independently elicits excitement for future development.

The next step challenged students to create their own holographic video to bring to life with their hologram projector. Students choose a topic from their current science unit and created a short script to explain or bring it to life.

Students prepared short scripts for their hologram videos and consulted with Mr. Morrow on the science content.

Options for creating the short video included: Tellagami, Puppet Pals, and Explain Everything-- essentially, any app where you can create on a black background.

Creatively animating with Keynote can easily create a video on a black background.

Any text needs to be in inverse so that the reflection of it through the hologram projector is able to be read.

Another option that we tried was filming in front of a green screen and then "keying" out the green to replace with a plain black background to create the hologram video.

Helpful Hint: use a standard aspect ratio rather than widescreen and capture a solid black screenshot to use as a background.

Using Keynote on iPad, insert your movie onto the slide template and resize to match it up with the top video placeholder. Copy/paste it 3 more times (to ensure it is the exact same size) and then rotate each one 90 degrees clockwise. The template is not necessary, simply a guide. You do want to use the guidelines in Keynote to help form the inner square where your hologram projector will sit. A final important step is to animate all four videos so that they play together in sync. Students can experiment with size, distance from the center, and other variables to design the perfect hologram.